How Not to Make Friends
by TARDIS-elf
Summary: A year after the Giant War, Percy and Annabeth are struggling to fit in at New Rome, the prophecies of the Oracle have returned to Camp Half-Blood, and Nico is annoyed to death by Elise, an unclaimed fifteen-year-old. Elise is trying desperately to become Nico's friend, but a young new camper and a trip from the dead may be enough to make Elise question her own motives. Click:)
1. Nico's Not-So-Happy Meal

**Nico's POV**

Nico just wanted to walk by himself. He enjoyed it. He could be alone with his thoughts. No interruptions. Who wanted to bother a son of Hades anyway? Evidently, Elise Mosely wanted to.

She was annoying. That was all Nico had to say about her. She giggled too much. She was conceited in the extreme. Worst of all, she kept trying to be his friend.

Never before, in all his life, had he met someone who could get on your nerves like Elise. The only person who came close was Percy Jackson. Percy was irritating, true, but Elise took it to a whole new level. She was _infuriating._ She was the very embodiment Percy's annoying-ness on steroids.

He had no reservation thinking those things. He got that everyone was supposed to feel bad for her because she was fifteen and her godly parent hadn't bothered to claim her yet. He just wasn't really up for the whole "feeling bad" thing.

For the sake of his few real friends, Nico tried to tolerate her. Who didn't love Elise? She was just everybody's favorite, and if you didn't like her, you must have been messed up! It made Nico sick.

So, when she practically skipped to walk with him, Nico had to fight the urge to yank out one of her messy, frizzy, honey-colored ringlets.

"Hey, vas happenin'?" she chimed.

Nico shrugged. "Nothing really…" he mumbled, when all he was thinking was, _Go away!_

"Wrong!" she giggled. "Didn't you hear?"

Nico sighed. "Hear what?"

Elise stepped in front of him and began walking backwards. "Apollo's back. Rachel started with the prophecies again."

Nico stopped dead in his tracks. "So, what did she say?"

Elise shrugged. "I don't remember. It was something about Kayla Barton and Austin Robinson going on a quest for Aphrodite's hairbrush or makeup kit or something. They're leaving for Philadelphia tomorrow with Grover Underwood's cousin. At least I think it was his cousin."

Another flaw that Elise had acquired: she couldn't remember anything if her life depended on it. At least she remembered Austin was going. The son of Apollo was practically her boyfriend, and if she forgot, Nico would've been concerned.

Nico shoved his hands in his pockets. "Okay. Nice…"

She stared at him with a look of anticipation. "Well, c'mon, Nico! This is huge! We don't have a prophecy in a year and all you have to say is, 'Nice'?" she laughed.

Nico shrugged. "I guess I'm not a big fan of quests. They're dangerous. Not something to be anticipated."

Her face fell. "Oh. Well, I personally am excited. Things are finally getting back to normal around here…"

As if Elise knew anything about normal. She arrived at camp at the worst possible time: during the war with Gaea. The normal Elise knew were warring camps and exploding demigods.

"So…" Nico began. "Is that all, or…"

Elise furrowed her eyebrows. "Oh, no, there was something else…"

Nico waited as patiently as he could. Elise always managed to make things awkward.

"Oh!" she finally exclaimed. "Duh. Everyone's already in the Mess Hall. I didn't know if you weren't hungry or if you missed Mr. D's announcement or…"

Nico shook his head. "I actually wasn't going to go in today…."

Elise nodded quickly. "Oh, yeah, sure. Ok. It's just that…" She began twisting her pinkie finger and sighed. "Will is pretty much demanding that you come and eat something."

Rolling his eyes, Nico started to trudge to the Mess Hall. Will Solace was always trying to make sure he was in the best health humanly possible. It wasn't that Nico didn't appreciate the effort; it's just that he was fine. For real.

Elise skipped behind him. Sometimes, it was hard to believe she was fifteen. She acted like such a little kid.

"Why do you skip so much?" he asked over his shoulder. He instantly regretted it.

She answered in a way that only she could. "Because I'm a fairy and I'm trying to fly."

Nico rolled his eyes. Holy mercy. Fifteen? More like five.

They reached the Mess Hall in one piece, surprisingly. No one paid attention to them when they walked in. Or at least, no one _would have._

Elise nearly hollered at the top of her lungs, "I'm back!" Oh, sure, that was probably directed to the Hermes table, but everyone heard it. She bounded to her table and sat down, immediately picking up a conversation with Travis Stoll.

Will caught Nico's eye. He looked angry. All he did was point to the Hades table. There was already a plate of food there.

Nico nodded at Will and shuffled over to his assigned table. He sat down and immediately decided he was in no mood to devour the enormous burger set in front of him. A few of the fries would be enough for him.

For a few minutes, he did nothing but blankly stare ahead. There was no one to talk to anyway. After the war, he _did_ have Hazel for a while, but too soon she was gone. His friends had convinced him to stay, but part of him wanted to go take care of his sister.

A round of cheering came from all around him. Nico tried to discover the cause of the commotion. It didn't take long. Kayla, Austin, and a satyr Nico didn't recognize had walked in with Chiron.

Motioning for the campers to settle down, Chiron began to speak. "No doubt all of you are already aware of the recent prophecy given by our Oracle, Rachel. The quest for Aphrodite's Dove is an important one, no doubt."

Oh, so Elise's memory-loss was so bad, she couldn't remember that they were questing for Aphrodite's symbol of power.

Chiron continued. "In concordance with the prophecy, two children of Apollo will be embarking on this quest along with a satyr. After careful consideration, Kayla Barton, Austin Robinson and Lazlo Waters have been chosen."

The campers exploded into more cheers and applause. Chiron again silenced them.

"Austin, Kayla, Lazlo, this will be no easy task. The quest will be fraught with danger, and you may not return alive. Are you willing to take that risk?"

Kayla spoke up without hesitation. "We are."

There was no calming the crowd after that. Chiron yelled over the noise. Something about showing support and whatever. No one really heard or cared.

Nico didn't join in the commotion. The buzz of energy that swept over the campers didn't affect him one bit. However, he did hope for the best or them, because there would be times for them when hope was all they had.

Nico decided that no one would notice if he slipped away now. So, he left. He headed back to his cabin.

When he entered, he looked around. He had finished redecorating last August. It was now a medium gray room with pomegranate accents. He was pretty proud of his work, and he was able to enjoy it all by himself.

He sat down on his bed and picked up a book Annabeth had recommended before she and Percy left for college. It was peaceful here, if a little lonely.

It was late when a knock came on the door. It was almost curfew. Before Nico could answer, it was open.

Will stood in the doorway. "Hey, buddy," he greeted.

"Hi, Will," Nico answered, feeling guilty for running off.

Will walked into the cabin slowly. He waited a while before speaking. "So, I'm just taking a shot in the dark here, but I'm assuming that you're not as excited for quests as everyone else."

Nico sighed. "People die on quests, Will. I've seen it too many times. Beckendorf, Leo, Bianca… It's bound to happen again at some point."

Will nodded and sat down on the bed opposite to Nico. "I'm worried about, Kayla," he confessed. "She's young. She's impetuous. Sure, she's got experience, but…"

Nico shut his book. "Will, don't make predictions about who's going to die. It's frightening coming from the son of Apollo."

Will shrugged. "You're right. I shouldn't worry so much. I'm just freaked out because they're my siblings. That's all."

"Believe me, I know how that is." What Nico left unsaid is that siblings don't always come back just because you worry.

Will stood to leave. "I guess I'll leave you to your book. I imagine things are going to be hectic in our cabin. By the way, don't think I didn't see how much you didn't eat. You've got to take care of yourself, kid."

Nico rolled his eyes. "I'm not a kid, Will."

"I know, I know," Will responded. "It's just because we're worried about you. We all care about you."

Nico re-opened his book. "Okay, Will. I get it."

Will seemed to hesitate for a moment, but he just nodded and left.

Nico thought long and hard about what Will said. _We all care about you._ He doubted the truth of it. He was able to narrow the list of people who really cared about him to four people: Will, Jason, Hazel, and (though he hadn't seen her in a while) Reyna. Maybe Annabeth, but that was a big maybe.

Of course, there were the people who pretended. That was Percy, Elise, and… well, pretty much the whole camp. Nico was used to it. Besides, someone had to represent Hades here…


	2. Will Rains on the Parade

**Elise's POV**

It was so hard to talk to Nico di Angelo. He seemed to shy away from anything Elise said or did. All Elise wanted to do was talk to him. It wasn't like she was asking him to wear a bright tourist shirt and parade around dancing the Macarena.

It was like she could do nothing right. Every attempt at being his friend went down the drain. What's worse, she didn't know what she was doing wrong.

She really cared about him. She wanted to be his friend. She wanted to be able to see him smile.

After the war, during the feasts, Elise had singled Nico out. He was the boy who, despite every happy thing that had happened and was happening, smiled the least. Oh, it was obvious he had friends. Yet, he still didn't ever seem entirely happy. Elise was determined to change that.

She had a pair of co-conspirators, as well. Jason and Will's mutual concern had made them the best of friends. They had the same goal: to make Nico happy. And nothing makes better friends than a common enemy: anyone who stood in their way.

This was by no means an obsession of hers. She was not dedicated, body and soul, to the joy of Nico di Angelo. She had a life. At the moment, it revolved around Austin, Kayla, and Lazlo's good luck (or bad luck? Nico was confusing.)

It was an absolute madhouse at the Apollo cabin. Elise had been graciously invited to a sort of party there by Austin. It was past curfew, but Kayla's boyfriend, a camper from the Hecate cabin, had put a spell on the cabin that made it appear as though all was quiet.

Someone had cranked up Broadway show-tunes, and everyone had a Sunny D in their hand. There was a big banner that looked like it had been made on short-notice (which it had been) that read "Happy Questing!" It was definitely one of the weirder experiences in life.

Elise stood, leaning against a wall, watching the crowd, and toying with the enchanted, circle pendant that hung from the chain on her neck. She had acquired it on her way to camp. It got warmer when monsters where nearby, and though she had no real use for it anymore, it always made her feel stronger.

Elise's good friend Austin stood at the other end of the cabin. They kept looking at each other and making weird faces. Elise figured that the humor of it helped to calm his nerves and distract him from all the attention he was receiving.

"Elise?" Kayla tried to get her attention.

"Sorry, what?" Elise quickly responded, snapping her attention away from Austin.

Kayla furrowed her brows. "Something up?" She turned to see where Austin stood. "Oh," she teased. "I get it. You're flirting with your boyfriend."

"I'm not flirting. He's not my boyfriend," Elise stammered.

Kayla smirked. "Who's not your boyfriend? Listen, everybody knows you and Austin like each other. You're not fooling anyone."

Evidently, Elise was fooling everyone. She didn't mean for it to look as though she and Austin were in a relationship. She just didn't think of him like that. It was always awkward when people tried to force them into being a thing. They were, in all honesty, just good friends.

"In your dreams, Kayla," Elise teased.

"You just don't give up, do you? I hope I have that kind of stamina on the quest. Well, I have party guests to brag to. I'll talk to you in a bit. Okay?"

"Sure thing."

Kayla ran off to be annoying, her self-proclaimed favorite hobby. When she left, Austin walked over. He said nothing, which was very uncharacteristic.

"Some party," Elise began, hoping to strike a conversation. It was odd. She and Austin hardly ever wanted for conversation.

He nodded. "Yeah, um, they threw it together last-minute, so it's pretty impressive." His normal talkative nature began to reveal itself, but slipped away.

"So," Elise prodded. "Did you come over to tell me something or to just hang, because I'm cool with both."

Austin looked around anxiously. "Actually, there was something I needed to say. I would ask to step outside but, ah," he laughed timidly. "Harpies aren't fun to deal with. So, would you join me in the corner?"

That sounded a bit cryptic to Elise, but she followed. They seemed to be out of sight and mind where they were. That was probably why they were there.

"Now," Austin began. "Tomorrow I will be leaving on a quest, which will be dangerous, and I may not return alive."

"Austin, don't—"

He held up his hand. "Please, let me finish. I was fully aware of the risk when I accepted the quest, but there is one I might yet avoid. I am not willing to take the risk of leaving tomorrow without telling you how I feel. About you, about the possibility of there being an 'us'…"

Elise had to interrupt. "Austin, there is so much going on right now." She automatically began twisting her pinkie finger. "Listen, what you're suggesting, it's a gamble. What if I turned out to be the daughter of Apollo? What then? And wouldn't I just be a distraction from your quest? I don't want to put you in any sort of danger…"

Austin stared at his feet. "I was actually thinking you would be my motivation to get back in one piece…"

Elise really wanted to let him down easy. She couldn't break him, not on the day before the quest. "I still can be." She took off the chain around her neck. "Take this. It's magic. Gets warmer when monsters are around. Be sure to return it to me _when_ you get back."

She placed the one magical object she had in the palm of her friend. Pulling Austin into a hug, she muttered, "Good luck."

When they pulled away, a song called "Don't Rain on My Parade" came on over the speakers. Kayla screamed at the top of her lungs. "AW, YEAH, CRANK THAT SUCKER UP!" Her request was fulfilled. Theater kids were both awesome and weird.

The song went on for a while, with most of the Apollo kids singing over it and giving their own performance. The party stopped completely when Will Solace walked in.

He stared in righteous anger at every camper as every camper stared back at him. "Are you kidding me?" he shouted. "The night before a quest, when you need rest more than anything else, you throw a party past curfew? Whose idea was this?"

Kayla stepped forward. "It's just a celebration, Will. We're having a little fun before we go out there and risk our lives."

Will ran a hand over his face. "Kayla, Kayla, Kayla. I worry about you, sometimes." Everyone was quiet. "Pack it up, guys! The party's over."

Everyone moved to get their things.

Elise walked over to Will. "How is he?" she inquired.

There was no wondering who Elise was talking about. "I can never really be sure with Nico. You know how he is. He keeps to himself."

Elise nodded. "He didn't eat much at dinner. I'm worried that he's not taking care of himself like he should."

Will sighed. "Me too, Elise. Me too. But, hey, you need to get back to your cabin."

"Right, right, of course. My apologies for intruding."

Will laughed. "No trouble at all. It's these knuckleheads. Anyway, I'll see ya later."

"You bet," Elise laughed, walking out the door.

She sneaked her way back to the Hermes cabin. When she reached the door, Connor and Travis Stoll pulled her inside and started acting like idiots.

"So, girlfriend, how was the party?" Connor giggled in a high-pitched imitation of a girl's voice.

"Was it, like, totes amaze?" Travis continued.

"Was Austin Robinson there? I heard someone has a little crush on him."

Elise rolled her eyes. "Holy mercy, guys. Just let me breathe for a second before you bombard me with your endless round of questions about what Austin Robinson did or did not do or say or think!"

"Wow, sorry. We were just having a little fun," Travis apologized, though he sounded a little offended.

"Go to sleep!" a Hermes camper yelled from under a mountain of covers.

"Yeah, guys. Get to sleep."

They obeyed her.

Elise crept to the changing room, hoping not to wake any more slumbering demigods. She changed into her pajamas and crawled into her sleeping bag.

Elise loved camp. She loved feeling like she belonged somewhere. But she could never feel normal. Thirteen. That was the rule. She was supposed to know who she was by the time she was thirteen. She was fourteen when she arrived. She should've been claimed the moment she stepped in. Now she was fifteen. Evidently, she wasn't important enough to be claimed. And that was fine. She only wished she didn't have to put up with Connor and Travis's constant pranks.

Speaking of which, there was something slithering its way up Elise's leg. She reached for it and pulled out a garden snake, a harmless thing, but creepy nonetheless. Elise screamed.

"STOLLS!"


	3. Percy Is a Fish Out of Water

**Percy's POV**

Percy leaned back in his chair and groaned. Loudly. So all the class could hear. Annabeth elbowed him in the ribcage.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain," she whispered.

They were in the middle The Roman Empire 101, a very boring class that he and Annabeth were, unfortunately, required to take. Fortunately, it was the last class of the day.

Percy's status as one of the only two Greek demigods in the college made it difficult to care about what was being taught, but their professor, Professor Judson, was making it impossible.

"And so," he was saying. "We know that as soon as the West expanded, Jupiter and Juno decided blah, blah, blah."

Of course he didn't actually say that last bit, but Percy's ADHD filled it in. He put his elbow on the desk and rested his head on his hand as he let his mind wander.

Professor Judson sure did have a big nose. Percy wondered if that made it easier or harder to lick his nose. The bigger question, could Percy lick his own nose? He hadn't really sat down and tried it before. Of course, he wasn't about to now. Annabeth would be irritated as all get out.

He glanced over at his girlfriend. Her hair looked really pretty in this light, and she looked really cute when she was focusing like she was. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and she was pinching her bottom lip, and—

"Hey, Greek," the Roman on his right whispered. "Would you stop making goo-goo eyes at your girlfriend and get your elbows off my papers?"

Percy felt his face flush in embarrassment. He removed his elbow.

"I would pay attention if I were you, Greek," the Roman continued. "This stuff will be important to your grade."

Annabeth suddenly spoke up next to Percy. "He will, thank you."

"Miss Chase," Professor Judson grabbed her attention. "I'm not sure how things work in the Greek society, but in Rome, class is not a time for socialization."

"I— uh – yes… Yes, sir," Annabeth stuttered.

 _Great,_ Percy thought. He had got her in trouble. Now she would be mad. That was just what they needed right now. Their relationship was strained enough, as it was, and, to be honest, it had been that way since they arrived in New Rome.

Percy couldn't put his finger right on it, but something was off about everything. Annabeth seemed sort of… distant. This was supposed to be good for them.

Percy got so caught up in his worry, he missed the entire point of the lesson. Class was over before he could blink, and Annabeth had stormed off without him.

He tripped over himself to catch up to her. "Annabeth," he called. "Annabeth, I'm sorry."

She stopped abruptly and spun around to face him. "Listen, Percy. You don't have to apologize. I'm not hurt, only my pride."

"I didn't mean to humiliate you."

She sighed. "I know, Percy. I know. But the thing is, we're the only Greeks here. People are already prejudiced against us. We have to really prove ourselves if we want to be accepted here, and it's not helping to slack off in class."

"Right. I'm sorry. I'll work harder. I'll pay attention. This was my idea and I'll make it work."

She poked his arm. " _We'll_ make it work, Seaweed Brain. This may be your idea, but we're doing this thing together."

Percy nodded, pulling Annabeth in to a tight hug and kissing the top of her head. "Couldn't do it without you."

They stood that way for a while until Annabeth pulled away. "Hey," she said. "You're going to be late for your shift."

Annabeth was referring to the job Percy had at Old Rome Delicacies. He worked from after school until closing.

It was a very busy place, the café. Percy figured it had something to do with the specialty: fried dormouse. Now, that sounded disgusting. It really did, but really you just had to get over what it was.

Annabeth would sit in the café while Percy worked. Percy got to admire her for hours as she poured over her books, and the job helped pay for his tuition, so it was a pretty good arrangement.

They reached the café, and the woman who ran the place, a large lady called Emilia Donati, came fuming from the kitchen.

"So, you decide to leave me all alone today, eh?" Emilia scolded, her thick Italian accent seeping through with every syllable. "You are late, Signore Jackson. I do not pay you so I can work all by myself!"

The people crowding in the café only looked amused at this outburst. Most of them knew Mrs. Donati. She was notorious for her quick temper and overreactions.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Donati," Annabeth apologized. "It was my fault. I kept him."

Emilia looked the pair of them up and down, judgmentally. "Well... Make sure that it never happens again!"

"Yes, ma'am," Annabeth responded and went to sit down with her books.

Percy put on his apron. He always felt weird in it, but it was required. He got to work which was the same as always: serving people, cleaning things, the waiter business.

Annabeth eventually finished her studies and went back to her dorm room, leaving Percy all alone.

Percy had a hard time focusing on his work. He kept thinking about what Annabeth had said about proving themselves. It was never this complicated back in New York, not even with the boarding schools they attended. They never had to be worried about being accepted.

In the end, the shop closed and Percy was left to clean up after the customers. Mrs. Donati came out to help, because she was nice like that, despite her temper.

After a few moments she spoke up. "You are being very quiet, Perseus."

Percy shrugged. "Sorry. I've just… got a lot on my mind, I guess."

Emilia nodded. "About Annabeth?"

"How did you know?"

"You're falling apart, no? Slowly, but even an old woman can see. You can tell me, Percy."

Percy kept forgetting that Emilia was the daughter of Aphrodite (well, technically Venus.) And as much as Percy hated to admit it, he needed help. "It's just," he began. "This whole college thing was my idea. I wanted to come here with her, but I guess I didn't really think it through. I thought it would be just like normal, but people treat us differently. She's been trying really hard to fit in, and… well, I haven't been trying as hard. I think she's upset with me."

Mrs. Donati snorted. "You think? Listen, this was your idea. She's not trying to fit in for her, or for us Romans. She's doing it for you, but you're not going to fix your problem by doing the same thing she's doing."

"Then what am I supposed to do, Mrs. Donati? I don't want to lose her, but I don't know what to do."

She didn't say anything for about thirty minutes. At the end of it, the whole place was clean and ready for tomorrow. Only then did Emilia speak. "You do a good job around here, Jackson."

"Um, thank you," Percy replied, somewhat taken aback.

"I'll tell you what, you can take the month off, the whole month. Take Annabeth, go home, back to New York."

So this was the genius plan? Was it really that simple? "Are you serious?"

"When do I kid around, huh?"

"Thank… Thank you, Mrs. Donati. I won't forget this."

Percy left with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step. They were going home.


	4. Despite Everything, Nico Is Still a Nerd

"No, Jason, look," Nico tried to explain, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Zeus has lightning bolts that give six hundred damage. As Apollo, you have two thousand defense. I took away six hundred on my last turn AND the turn before that. If I were you, I would use this turn to change gods."

Jason and Nico were playing Mythomagic in the Zeus cabin. This was the third round today. Jason had lost both of the previous ones via extremely poor strategic choices. Nico was almost tempted to let him win, just so he could have some small victory.

Jason pushed his glasses up on his face. "But Apollo is the best one I have."

"Not anymore," Nico pointed out.

Jason's shoulders slumped. "It's not really fair to use my own father against me."

Nico sighed as he pulled his hand of cards together. "Okay, well, we could always stop playing."

"No!" Jason yelled. "I mean, I'm not giving up just yet."

Nico sighed. How Jason had pulled him back into playing this little kid game, he had no idea. It probably went something along the lines of, "PLEASE, NICO. I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IIIIIT." Jason pulled stunts like that all the time. Unfortunately, most of the time, it worked. They had been playing it in their spare time for months now.

Jason looked through his collection of action figures. He pulled one out and let him take the place of Apollo. "Dionysus, I choose you."

It took everything within Nico's power to restrain from groaning and slamming his head down on the table. Dionysus was literally the weakest. Way too easy to beat. As Nico proved when he defeated Jason for the third time in a row.

As Jason reshuffled the deck, Nico picked up his figurines and stood to leave.

"Whoa, dude," Jason called after him. "Aren't we going to play another round?"

Nico shook his head. "Um, actually, I was just going to go walk a bit after I put these away..."

Nodding, Jason swept up his collection of figurines. He stuffed them into a plastic box which he shoved under his bunk. "You don't mind if I tag along, do you?"

Nico shook his head. "No, I guess not."

Jason followed Nico out the door. Nico went back to the Hades cabin and put his figurines away. Then he began his walk. Jason followed, but didn't say anything, perhaps grasping the idea that Nico took these walks to think.

Nico didn't know why Jason was always hanging around him. It's not that he didn't appreciate the attention most of the time, it's just that he figured that Jason would rather spend time with his girlfriend Piper. It wasn't like Nico was Jason's best friend in the whole world. That was Percy.

It was only when they started to cross the bridge over the lake that Jason spoke up. "So where are we going?"

"Um, nowhere, really. Unless you want to pick a destination…"

"Nah," Jason said with a shrug. "I figured we were going nowhere. I was just wondering."

"If you didn't think I was going anywhere, then why did you want to come?" Nico asked.

"Oh," Jason began. "Y'know… Being all by yourself can stink sometimes."

After that answer, Nico remained silent. Being alone didn't actually bother him too much. Over the years, he had gotten used to it. Only up until recently had he acquired a few, really good friends.

They walked for a while a little while longer in silence, that topic behind them. Then Jason said, "We're getting a little close to the boundary, Nico."

Nico looked up. Thalia's pine was not that far away. The silhouette of a demigod sat near the base, staring up at the tree. He hadn't realized that they had passed the Big House. "Huh," Nico acknowledged. "So we are."

Nevertheless, they kept walking. As they got closer, Nico recognized the silhouette as Elise. Nico groaned internally. Another perfectly good walk, ruined.

Jason, who was good friends with Elise, addressed her. "Hey, Elise, what's up?"

She turned to see the pair of them. "Oh, hi, Jason." She glanced in Nico's direction. "And Nico?" She shot Jason an unfathomable look. Evidently, Jason understood and nodded. Whatever that was about.

"What brings you here?" Jason inquired.

Elise turned back to the tree and shrugged. "I really don't know. I just got this gut feeling that I should be here. That probably sounds stupid."

Jason shook his head. "Not at all. You should trust your instincts."

Nico noticed something about Elise that Jason hadn't bothered to bring up. "Why in Hades do you have a sword?" he questioned, referencing the weapon she held in her hand.

She glanced down at it. "Oh, I just came from the arena. I probably forgot to put it away. Didn't even know I had it." The ever-forgetful Elise strikes again.

"Well, Nico and I were just walking. Do you want to come along?" Jason asked.

 _Please, no_ , Nico begged in his mind.

"No, thanks. Something brought me here, and I'm not leaving until I figure out…" Elise's sentence faded, and she tensed. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Jason.

Elise stood up slowly. "I think there was a roar. It came from over…." She pointed in the direction she supposedly heard the roar. "There-ish."

They all looked stared in that direction for a while, trying to find the source of the sound. Instead, they found two people limping towards them pathetically. Nico instantly recognized them as—

"Percy! Annabeth!" Jason called.

It was then that the source of the noise revealed itself. It had come from a huge manticore that had obviously busied itself pursuing the couple.

There was little they could do to help. The only person with a weapon was Elise, and she wasn't exactly the best at swordplay. This is probably why she tossed her weapon to Jason and ran to help Percy and Annabeth get into camp. Nico followed suit.

Jason ran after the manticore, but Nico didn't see what else happened. He was too busy helping Percy and Annabeth. They could barely move by themselves. He and Elise dragged them back to camp as quickly as they could without hurting them.

As soon as they were inside the camp, Nico turned just in time to see Jason dissolve the manticore into dust.

Percy and Annabeth had collapsed on the ground and were gasping for air. Elise knelt beside them, doing what she could. Which was very little.

"Annabeth," Percy breathed. "Let's not take the bus anymore."

"You think?" Annabeth responded.

Percy rolled over on his back to reveal a large, bloody gash across his stomach.

"Oh my…" Elise whispered. "They need nectar. Nico, can you get Will?"

Nodding, Nico ran to where he knew Will would be: at the amphitheater, rehearsing for the Apollo cabin's next concert. Will sat on a box in the middle of the stage, laughing with his brothers and sisters.

"Will!" Nico called. "We need nectar and a doctor. Now!"

Will sprang up. "Whoa, slow down. What's wrong?"

"It's Percy and Annabeth. They're back, and they're hurt."


	5. Elise Skips Medical School

That had been the first monster attack Elise had seen in ages. Her heartrate had spiked, and she was shaking like a leaf. She would've totally lost it if it weren't for her concern for Percy and Annabeth.

That was who they were, right? She could've been sure those were the names Jason had called. They matched the description: a guy with black hair and a blondie. But they seemed different than Elise had imagined them. Maybe it was because everyone made them out to be these powerful, god-like heroes, and here they lay, completely vulnerable. Just kids.

Jason stumbled over to where Elise knelt beside them. He was clearly worn out from his brief battle. No hiding that. "How are they," he gasped.

Elise shook her head. "Not good. Percy here is bleeding his guts out."

Jason grimaced. "Really?"

"No, I'm lying," Elise lied. "Don't worry. Could you check Annabeth for injuries?"

Jason nodded and did as she said.

Out of the blue, Percy grabbed Elise's wrist. His grip was extremely tight. He was cutting off her circulation. "You—you saved my life," he choked.

Elise smiled pathetically at him. "It wasn't just me," she informed. "It was Jason and Nico, too."

Percy shook his head. "No," he insisted. "They couldn't have done that."

That confused Elise endlessly. She hadn't done anything that Nico hadn't done, and Jason had killed the manticore. "What did I do?" she questioned. But Percy didn't have time to answer before he passed out. "Percy?" Elise tried to call him back to consciousness. "C'mon, Percy. Don't leave us."

Annabeth, who was obviously in better condition than her boyfriend, must've noticed Elise's attempts to bring Percy back to reality. She leaped up and pushed Elise out of the way. Elise couldn't blame her.

"Percy, wake up. We're here. We made it. Wake up, Seaweed Brain. C'mon!" Annabeth was in hysterics. Screaming at Percy's lifeless form and slapping what she was calling his stupid face, all desperate attempts to wake him up. "Perseus Jackson!" she finally screeched. "If you die, I'll kill you!"

Percy's eyelids fluttered open briefly. "You're getting me to stay alive by threatening me?"

Annabeth sighed in relief. "Yes, if it works. Keep talking to me."

Will and Nico reached the scene at that point. Will took one look at Percy's wound and decided, "He's in critical condition. I need to get him to the infirmary right away."

Will drew a tiny, white rectangle from his pocket and placed it on the ground. It magically expanded into a stretcher. A handy tool for a doctor.

Elise helped load Percy onto the stretcher, and watched as he was wheeled away to the infirmary, Annabeth in tow.

As she let her eyes follow, she couldn't help but wonder what Percy had meant. What in the name of Olympus did she do? Did she somehow use some unknown power? She must've, but she couldn't imagine what… Whatever it was must be a clue to the identity of her godly parent. No, she couldn't think about that. Not now. It would be selfish.

She turned to face Jason and Nico, who had also stayed behind. "So they're back, huh?"

Jason shrugged. "It sure looks that way, doesn't it?"

Suddenly, Nico exclaimed, "Jason, look at your arm!"

Jason looked at his arm, and so did Elise. There was a long gash down his forearm that was foaming with green puss. It looked bad. Really bad.

"Jason, I think you need to get to the infirmary," Elise stated, never tearing her eyes away from his wound.

Nico stared incredulously at Elise. "Oh, you think?"

Elise ignored Nico's sarcastic comment and helped Jason get to where he needed to be. The poison was draining his energy. She was sure of it.

The infirmary seemed empty. It _was_ empty. But then again, it was always empty. After everyone had recovered from the Giant War, there were only ever a few campers there at a time and only Will was needed to take care of them. There were two patients around now, neither with seemingly serious problems.

There was female screaming from the opposite side of a door at the far end of the infirmary. Elise watched as Annabeth was dragged out of that door and left in the waiting room.

"You'll pay for this, Will Solace!" she was yelling. She sounded more violent than Clarisse on a bad day. But Elise didn't see someone that should be avoided, she saw someone who needed a friend. It's just the way Elise was.

But first things first, Jason was rapidly losing blood, and who knew how quickly that poison worked? Elise walked to the door that Annabeth had just walked out of and knocked.

"Will?" she called.

She heard Will on the other side of the door. "If she's using you to get in, it's not working! He needs air, Annabeth! I told you that!"

"No, Will, it's Jason."

Will opened the door. "What's wrong with Jason?"

"He's got this wound on his arm," Elise informed, gesturing to where it was on her own arm. "It's deep, and it's dripping with green puss."

Will looked back inside at Percy. Elise could see that Will was hesitant to leave him, but then there was a matter of potentially fast-acting poison. Then his face lit up. Elise knew this face. It was the face he made when he had come up with a stupid idea.

"I have a brilliant idea," Will announced. He grabbed Elise's arm, pulled her inside the room, and shut the door. Percy was on a bed, still completely knocked out. "You know how to stich a wound closed, right?"

"What?" Elise exclaimed. "No!"

"Oh, c'mon, Elise! It's just like stitching anything else! You've seen me do it plenty of times. Listen. All you have to do is run a needle back and forth. Simple!" Before Elise could argue, Will ran out the door singing, "Don't screw up!"

"This is why they don't let teenagers become doctors!" Elise called after him. She slowly turned back to Percy. Still out cold. "Good grief why are boys so stupid?"

However, the stupidity of males was not Elise's main concern. Her main concern was this kid that was bleeding to death. How hard could it be to stitch a person closed? It couldn't be that hard. For real.

Elise put her hair up, washed her hands, and put on gloves. She took a long look at the wound, trying to determine what she should do… Finally, she just grabbed the tools she needed and got to work. She was sure she was doing something wrong. Her worst fear was that she was hurting more than helping.

"Okay," she mumbled, finishing up the stitch and cutting the string. "I think that did it."

Will ran in at that point and started raiding the medicine he had stocked up. He grabbed a bottle of something and a container of something else. Holy Olympus, he was practically grabbing the whole stash!

"Will, I finished," Elise announced.

"Yeah, great job," Will muttered back, not even looking.

"I think I killed him," Elise threw in, just to grab Will's attention. It didn't work.

"Uh-huh! Sorry, got to run. I'll be back," Will announced. He ran out the door. Before it closed, Elise heard Will say, "Hey, Nico, I need your help."

Okay, so what was Elise supposed to do now? She glanced at Percy, still breathing, still out cold. Well, one thing was for sure: she wasn't going to leave her patient

Nico walked in and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm supposed to check on you and Percy."

Elise sighed in relief. "Oh, good. I was wondering when someone would come and…" Elise shut up while Nico checked the stitch.

He cleared his throat. "You did fine," was all he said. "Remarkably well, actually. Will is going to come back soon and start pumping blood back into him, but for what you did, you did well."

Elise stood up a little straighter. That was the biggest compliment Nico had ever offered her. "Thanks."

Nico stared at Elise a while longer. "Listen," he said. "I wasn't going to say anything, but I think after this, we can pretty safely guess who your godly parent is."


	6. Will Is Offered a Quest, Unfortunately

Will prided himself on being able to remain calm. Keep his cool. All that good stuff. But the events of the day had really made it hard.

His patient, Jason, had been infected with manticore poison. Now, Will had read about manticore poison. He knew how to treat it. The thing was, he wasn't _prepared_ to treat it. Will had never had a patient infected with it before. He didn't figure that he would ever have to treat it, what with the Doors of Death being moved. However, here he was with an infected patient: Jason Grace, no less.

This particular circumstance had brought Will to a new level of stress. By now, everyone had heard of Percy and Annabeth's return. A huge crowd had formed at the doors of the infirmary, each demigod desperate to catch a glimpse of their long-absent heroes, one of which he had left in the care of Elise.

The only person that Will trusted to know what was going on was Piper. She was helping in any way she could. She had shut up the crowd, she had calmed Annabeth down, and now she was there for Jason, reassuring him everything would be fine. Will overheard her telling Jason this and he instantly felt himself calming down.

 _Alright, what needs to be done_ , he asked himself. He had already cleaned the wound and injected Jason with a serum that would slow down the poison. The treatment wasn't as simple as extracting the poison, he needed the antidote. And unfortunately, it was a plant that he did not have.

"How's it looking, Doc?" Nico asked from behind. Will jumped. That kid could sneak up on anyone.

"To be honest, Nico, it's not looking too good," Will admitted. "I was able to slow down the poison, but so far that's all I've been able to do."

A look of concern spread over Nico's face. "Can I help at all?"

Will thought for a moment. "Actually, if you could get Chiron and Rachel over here, that would be great."

"Great. I was headed their direction anyway," Nico announced, and left.

Okay. Whatever he meant by that… Nico was a great kid, even if he was sometimes confusing. And moody. But Will was fine with that. He just wanted to make sure that the son of Hades took care of himself.

But that was not his top priority at the moment. Someone was dying. Slowly dying, yes. Unaware of the fact that they were dying, yes. But dying all the same.

Was there anything at all that could be combined to produce an antidote? He wasn't an alchemist, but he was pretty sure there was nothing. Just a weed with a complicated name. (To save time, he called it Manticore Weed.) There would have to be a quest. It was really the only option.

Chiron and Rachel came through the doors with Nico trailing behind.

"Will," Chiron addressed. "Is something wrong, my boy?"

Will wrung his hands nervously and spoke in a hushed tone. "Well, yes. You see, Jason Grace has been infected with manticore poison, and, as it turns out, we do not have Manticore Weed in stock."

Chiron furrowed his eyebrows. "Manticore Weed?"

"The antidote for manticore poison?"

"Yes, yes, of course. I wasn't aware that it was called that. I thought the scientific term was—"

Will waved aside his words. "I just call it that. The point is that if we don't get our hands on it soon, Jason won't make it."

Rachel spoke up. "Are you proposing a quest, Solace?"

"I know there would have to be a prophecy," Will stated. "But to be completely honest, I would be willing to go without so much as an 'ok' from you. No offense."

Rachel ran her hand through her curly, red hair. "Prophecies don't come to me on demand. It has to really be—" Suddenly, her eyes began to glow green and smoke poured out of her mouth and nostrils. A wheezing, hissing voice spoke from her.

 _The physician shall travel with thief and with queen_

 _The son of the sky's only hope work to glean_

 _The anger of gods shall one learn to dread_

 _And shall discover the son of Apollo, dead._

Son of Apollo… That was him. Holy Olympus, that was him. He was going to die, wasn't he? He was going to get the Manticore Weed and die. Presumably alone, considering that they were going to find him dead.

A silence lingered in the room. He wished someone would talk. Tell him the Oracle voice was pulling his leg. No one did. They all stared at him in sympathy… He supposed it was sympathy.

Then Chiron cleared his throat. "Will Solace, son of Apollo, do you accept the quest?"

"Don't do it, Will," Nico demanded. "There's got to be another cure."

"There isn't, Nico," Will informed as calmly as he could. "There— there just isn't." He inhaled slowly. Horrible deaths flashed through his mind. He could experience any one of them. But he would save another life. And if he could do that… "I accept the quest."

Chiron nodded solemnly. "Very well, my boy. Now we've only to discover who the thief and the queen are."

Will thought about the people who could possibly go. As far as thieves, Connor or Travis Stoll seemed to be a possibility. Not that he particularly wanted either of them on the quest. It wasn't that Will didn't like them, it was just that he doubted that they'd be too helpful. As far as queens went, who knew?

Piper came through the door. "Will, Jason needs ibuprofen or something."

"I think we've just found our queen," Nico muttered.

Piper's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, did I miss something?"

"Piper, what did Leo always used to call you?" Nico questioned.

"Beauty Queen," she answered, her eyes saddening at the mention of her late friend. "Why?

"It makes sense that she would be the queen," Nico announced. "She would be first in line to help Jason."

As Chiron explained the quest to Piper, leaving out the death part. Her eyebrows furrowed as she weighed the situation. At the end of it, she accepted the quest without hesitation. "If he's really dying, I would go even if I wasn't mentioned I the prophecy. No stopping me."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "Now we've but to find the thief and you can be off. Nico, you said Elise was here."

Nico hesitated before answering. "Yeah, she's… She's in the back."

Chiron left with Rachel in that direction while Piper ran off to help Jason. Nico remained.

"What's wrong with Elise?" Will questioned.

"Nothing's wrong with her. Will, you can't go on this quest. You just heard, you're going to die," Nico pleaded.

Will sighed. "I… I don't have much choice. If I can die saving someone else, that would be the best way to die. For me, anyway. Let's go check on Elise."

"Will—" Nico started.

"Listen, Nico, I don't really want to talk about it. For now, I'm alive, and I've got to stay busy. Let's go check on Elise."

Will walked off towards the back of the infirmary. There was quite a crowd. Annabeth sat next to Percy's bed. Elise stood in the background, twisting her little finger nervously. Chiron was interrogating her.

"How often are you around the infirmary?" Chiron was asking.

"Every other day. I like helping people. It keeps me busy," Elise answered.

"And you say you've never stitched a wound before?"

Elise shook her head. "I have never, before now. Well, I've watched Will do it, but that's it."

Chiron stroked his beard in thought. "Elise, if you were to guess your godly parent, who would you guess?"

Elise shrugged. "I mean, I've thought about it, but to be honest, your guess is as good as mine."

"It makes sense you know," Rachel pointed out. "Apollo was gone before the Giant War, and that's when she came to camp."

"That's very true, Miss Dare," Chiron agreed. He thought a while more. "Elise, I believe your godly parent is Apollo."

Strangely enough, Elise didn't look too shocked. She didn't look to happy. Her face was sort of blank. "Well… Thank you… For telling me, I mean. I should… What should I do, exactly?"

"Well," Chiron said. "How would you like to be in charge of taking care of Mr. Jackson?"

That shocked her. "I, um, I guess I could."

"Very well. He is your responsibility."

Elise looked back at Annabeth, who seemed to be evaluating her. Elise cleared her throat. "I'll do my best."

Then Chiron turned his attention to Annabeth, telling her he was glad she was here, asking her about the manticore attack, etc.

Elise walked over to Will. "Well, as it turns out, we're siblings." She didn't sound very convinced. And to be honest, Will wasn't convinced either.

Will hesitated. "I'm not so sure."

Elise sighed in relief. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. I mean, they seem to be basing your parentage off of the fact that you were able to stitch Percy's wound. Truth be told, I wouldn't have asked you to do it if it wasn't something anyone could do. But for Chiron's sake, let's just go with the whole Apollo kid thing for now."

Elise nodded vigorously. "I can do that." She smiled. "I'll enjoy being your sister, though. For as long as it lasts."

For as long as it lasts… Even if Elise really was the daughter of Apollo, Will would be dead soon.

Will put on a brave face. "Yeah, that'll be fun." There was no need to tell her about the prophecy. There was just a need to find the thief, save Jason Grace's life, and get the quest over with, which would result in his death. No pressure.


	7. Percy Is Home Again

Percy really didn't like dreaming. Not one bit. For six years, he had put up with prophetic dreams. They showed him battles and quests and other terrible things. They didn't really help with the whole "good night's sleep" concept.

It was especially frustrating when Percy's dream self (a friend of Percy's called it a ba) escaped to the Underworld. Now, Percy had never been especially fond of this place, but he had seen worse. What disturbed him was what he saw and heard there.

 _Hades sat on his throne and Thanatos knelt at the foot of it. The lord of the dead looked ready to spontaneously combust. He gripped the arms of the throne furiously and spoke through his teeth. "Thanatos, I swear, if this is your idea of a joke…"_

 _It was hard to distinguish Thanatos's tone. Like a mixture of fear, embarrassment, and confusion. "No, my lord. He was not found. I, myself, can't understand how it happened."_

 _Hades jumped up. "The problem is not how it happened, it's that it did happen! If we don't fix this, the order of my realm will be destroyed! Everything will melt to nothingness!" He slumped back down in his thrown and rubbed his forehead. "What a blessing Persephone isn't here to witness all this."_

 _"May I remind you, my lord, that my lady Persephone is to return next month?"_

 _Hades stared at Thanatos, clearly not appreciating the reminder. "So she is." He thought a while longer then spoke evenly. "Be ever on the lookout. He will be hard to find, but not impossible. And make room on your schedule to visit Camp Half-Blood. It's time these demigods knew, with winter comes the sting of death."_

* * *

Percy woke up in a cold sweat. He bolted up and felt extreme pain in his abdomen.

"Holy Olympus, Percy! You ripped the wound open!" This was a voice Percy didn't immediately recognize. It was definitely a female voice, and sort of familiar if he thought hard about it. He scanned the room and found it belonged to a girl who was frantically getting supplies together.

"Um…"

She huffed. "Do you feel that pain in your gut? It's because you're bleeding, severely. You ripped the stitches open, so congratulations."

Percy looked down to find that what she said was true. He had a large gash on his stomach that seemed to be the source of his pain. He must've been in a fight. Huh, the last thing he remembered was boarding the bus with Annabeth and…

Annabeth.

"Where's Annabeth? Annabeth Chase?" Percy demanded.

"Calm down. She's fine. She's settling in at her cabin."

Percy sighed in relief. The world may not be okay, but she was. That's what mattered to him.

Percy got out of the infirmary bed and fell on his face.

"You can't do that. You're still weak," the girl informed.

Percy stood up shakily. "I noticed."

"I need to stitch you closed again."

Um, needles? No thank you. "No, I'm fine. Just get me to the water."

She stared at him a while. For a second, she looked like she was going to call him crazy. Then she shrugged and said, "Yeah, okay." She walked over to support him, then led him out of the infirmary.

The poor kid seemed to be struggling to support him. Percy tried to make it easier on her by carrying as much of his own weight as he could, but he was weak. Too weak.

She was able to get him to the water. Once he stepped in, his senses heightened. He was more alert. He felt stronger. His wound was slowly beginning to heal itself. Such are the benefits of being the son of Poseidon.

He looked over at the girl who had helped him. She was staring at the water like a calf staring at a new gate.

"Everything okay?" he questioned.

"I grew up in Miami." she stated.

Percy waited for her to say something else. She didn't. "Okay, well nice to meet you, Miss Miami."

"Sorry, I didn't get out my complete thought. I grew up in Miami with my grandparents. They never took me to the beach. I've never been swimming in my life. Not even here at camp… I wonder why…" She seemed genuinely confused. Percy felt bad for her.

"I never caught your name," Percy pointed out.

She quickly erased all signs of confusion from her face and smiled brightly. "Oh, it's Elise. Elise Mosely, daughter of… daughter of Apollo." She didn't sound too sure about that, but Percy decided not to ask. "And you're Percy Jackson."

Percy nodded. "That's me."

"I thought you were supposed to be in New Rome."

"I was. This was supposed to be a vacation of sorts. Didn't really go our way."

Elise hesitated a moment. She seemed as though she wanted to say something, and she was debating whether she should. "Percy… I wasn't going to say anything, but…" She began twisting her pinkie finger. "I was there when you came into camp. I, well, I got you into camp. But here's the thing, all I did was support you, but Nico did that much. You said I did something he couldn't have done. Do you remember what that was?"

Truth be told, Percy didn't recall anything of that sort. He remembered stepping foot inside camp and collapsing in a heap on the ground. Nothing came to mind about Elise's help. To be honest, he didn't even remember her. "Sorry, I don't. Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "Oh, you know. If I had some sort of power I didn't know about, I'd like to figure out what it was."

Percy studied Elise's face. She really did look familiar. It wasn't her hair. Olympus knows he would've recognized that mess immediately. Her eyes were pretty, but nothing remarkable. They were swampy blue and green. It must've been her smile. There was something about it…

"Percy!" Percy heard Annabeth call from behind him. He spun around. There stood his girlfriend, looking like an absolute goddess. She wore her usual camp-wear: the signature camp T-shirt and shorts. Her hair was unkempt and she looked like she had been crying. But still, she looked like a goddess.

She ran straight into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder. "You're okay. Thank the gods, you're okay."

Percy held her tightly. "Yeah, Wise Girl, I am."

Annabeth pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes. Then she punched Percy in the shoulder. "You're so stupid! I tell you not to charge a manticore head-on and what do you do? It's like you have a death-wish! How would I ever tell your mom? What about Tyson? Do you think Grover would've survived that? Honestly, Percy. You need to think!"

"Sorry," Percy apologized sheepishly.

Annabeth sighed. "Just don't scare me like that."

Percy nodded. "I'll be more careful next time. I promise."

Elise, who had silently witnessed the entire exchange, cleared her throat.

"Oh, sorry," Percy exclaimed. "Annabeth, this is Elise, daughter of Apollo. Elise, this is my girlfriend Annabeth, daughter of Athena."

Annabeth extended her hand. "I'm pleased to meet you, Elise. I hope Percy hasn't given you too much trouble."

Elise smiled and shook Annabeth's hand. "Oh, no. Not much. Carrying him down here wasn't a big deal."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows in question.

Percy cleared his throat and muttered, "Oh, yeah. I, uh… I accidentally ripped open my stitches."

Annabeth snorted. "Typical. And you carried him down here?"

"Well, yeah," Elise confirmed.

Annabeth looked at Elise as though a new light had dawned on her. "Impressive."

Elise shrugged. "I was just helping out my patient, here. My first, so, y'know…"

That's when the conch horn blew, announcing dinner.

"Oh, dinner's served. Great, I'm famished," Percy announced. He began walking toward the mess hall.

"You might consider a shirt, Percy," Annabeth commented.

Truth be told, Percy had forgotten that tiny detail. Nonetheless, he had to play it off. Be cool. "Why? Do you find this distracting?"

Annabeth only rolled her eyes. Percy began walking to his cabin for a shirt. Unfortunately, he tripped. And even more unfortunately, Annabeth saw. He heard both Annabeth and Elise absolutely bust a gut laughing. He only had enough dignity to not look back at them.

Percy reached Cabin 3 and quickly found his old, faded camp shirt. He stared at it a while before slipping it on. It was so faded, it was hardly orange—more like a dark yellow-y color—and you could barely read the "Half-blood" bit.

He looked around the cabin. He had spent so many summers here. It had really been a home more than anything else. Now cobwebs hung from the corners. The cleaning harpies were clearly unconcerned with a cabin that wasn't being lived in. It was a sad sight.

Percy left the neglected cabin behind, and hurried to the mess hall. They had started without him, but Mr. D noticed when he walked in.

"Oh, yes, by the way," the wine god began. "Peter Johnson seems to have made it back alive. Let's add this to his list of mighty accomplishments that will give him a big head. You can cheer or whatever." The campers followed Mr. D's advice.

Percy got his food, sacrificed, and sat down at the Poseidon table. He was alone as usual. If Tyson were here he would've had someone to talk to, but he was back at the forges. Annabeth seemed to be having a great time catching up with her brothers and sisters. It made him smile to see her so relaxed.

Percy looked around and spotted Elise at the Apollo table. She seemed to be in an intense conversation with Will Solace. The look on her face spelled out concern and dread. Percy hadn't known Elise long at all, but he got the impression that this wasn't in her nature. Will looked tired and resigned. It wasn't like him at all.

Chiron stepped to the front of the room, looking extremely worn down, as though he had just heard some awful news. "Campers, I have an announcement to make. This afternoon a much unexpected prophecy was given to us. It does seem unlikely, so soon after the departure of Kayla and Austin, but it is quite important. Jason Grace has been poisoned by the manticore."

This was news to Percy. He had known that Jason fought the manticore, but he didn't know that his friend had been injured. He felt awful that he hadn't checked on him sooner.

"Will Solace—come up here, my boy—has announced that to find the antidote for such a poison would require a quest. A quest that Piper Mclean –if you would join us here, my dear—has agreed to accompany Mr. Solace on. However, the prophecy calls for a third person. It mentions a thief, who has been unidentified. If you know yourself to be this thief, please step forward at this time."

There was a long pause. You could cut the tension with a knife. Everyone was trying hard not to look toward the Hermes table. But then a voice from the back of the room spoke. "I suppose that would be me."

Every head turned in the direction of the voice. Connor Stoll even gasped, "Dad."

For there in khaki shorts and a button-down shirt stood Hermes himself.


	8. Piper Hires a Babysitter for Lacey

Piper knew immediately that this was a bad idea. Gods weren't supposed to interfere with demigod quests, much less join them. What did Hermes care about Jason anyway? She had an educated guess that the god of thieves had ulterior motives. He was up to no good.

Hermes had ordered everyone to return to their meals, but no one could eat. The excitement that generally came with a quest had died down considerably, overshadowed by a wave of uneasiness. The only people who seemed to be buzzing with energy were those sitting at the Hermes Table.

Their dad had seated himself amongst them and was chatting away like nobody's business. He was catching up, praising their accomplishments, dad stuff. Well, good for them. It must be nice to hear from their godly parent. All the same, Piper couldn't help but feel a knot of dread in her stomach.

Piper had been so caught up with the activity at the Hermes table that she had missed the conversation going on at hers. She didn't hear all of it, but she caught that Drew was being herself. Her half-sister was taunting poor Lacy about her "metal mouth."

"Hey," Piper warned. "Watch it, Drew."

Drew rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed with Piper's tactics. "Listen, sweetie," Drew said in a sugary voice. Well, not sugary. More like artificially flavored. Splenda voice. "We're Aphrodite kids. We shouldn't need braces. It's totally fake."

Lacy whimpered next to Piper, threatening to cry. "Y'know what's fake, Drew?" Piper snapped. "Your eyelashes and probably your nose. Your surgeon should give you your money back." Piper turned to Lacy. "Don't listen to her, Lacy."

Piper constantly did this. She defended Lacy with as much fire as Drew spat at her. Poor Lacy was scared to death of Drew. Piper hated to admit it, but Lacy would most likely not be able to stick up for herself when Piper was gone. So who would?

As soon as dinner ended, Piper marched straight to Will, who was still talking to Elise. They both looked like they had been crying or were about to start. It would probably be rude to interrupt, but she had to talk to Will about Hermes. See what he thought.

"You're going to have to take care of Nico for me," Will was saying. "You and I both know he won't take it well. He already—"

"Oh, hey, Piper!" Elise greeted a little too brightly when she noticed Piper. It was somewhat obvious she was trying to shut Will up. "What can we do for you?"

Piper glanced sideways at Hermes. "I'm not sure there's anything you _can_ do."

Will got her meaning and nodded. "So, it makes you nervous, too?"

"I don't think there are many who _aren't_ made nervous by it," Elise pointed out.

"It's not supposed to happen," Piper added. "What could he possibly hope to gain?"

Will ran his fingers through his hair and exhaled slowly. "I don't know. I don't trust him."

Hermes's voice interrupted their conversation. "Don't trust who?" No one had noticed him come into earshot.

Luckily, Elise thought quickly. "He's was talking about Jack Harkness. I'm getting Piper and Will caught up on _Doctor Who_." That was, of course, a ridiculous statement. Piper had already seen all of that show up to the most recent season.

However, it let them miss some awkwardness. Hermes nodded. "Well, spoiler alert, he's a good guy," Hermes laughed, but he smirked knowingly. It made Piper anxious enough to feel like throwing up. "Anyway, quest-mates," Hermes sang. "Let's get this show on the road."

Piper spoke up. "Aren't we going to get a night of rest first?"

Hermes crossed his arms. "And waste precious time? Our dear Mr. Grace is getting weaker by the minute."

Piper sensed the lack of genuine concern in his voice, but she could hardly argue. "Can't we make our goodbyes, then?"

Hermes sighed. "Yes, I suppose. Can't have Mr. Grace think we've abandoned him, can we?"

Piper rushed to the infirmary to say goodbye to Jason. He was supposed to stay there until he was better, so that's where he was during dinner. He was currently sitting up in bed, looking perfectly healthy. It was difficult to think that he would die if they failed.

Of course, Piper didn't _want_ to think it. She could hardly bear the thought of coming back empty-handed, spending her last few moments with Jason, or eventually putting him in the ground.

"Hey, Pipes," Jason yawned. "Come to say goodnight?"

"Well," Piper sighed as she kneeled by the bed. "Goodbye, actually."

Jason furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean? I thought you were going to rest first. Do you even have the thief, yet?"

"Yeah, we do, and he's demanding that we leave right away."

"So who is it?" Jason questioned, adjusting his glasses.

Piper hesitated. She didn't want to give him another thing to worry about. He was already dying, after all.

"Piper, I want to know."

"It's Hermes," Piper informed, quickly and quietly. There, it was out.

Jason's eyes widened and his mouth fell open. She shouldn't have said a word. "That's—"

"I know," Piper interrupted. "No one likes it, but there's no point in freaking out about it."

Jason nodded. "You're right, but you're still going to go?"

"I have to. You're dying, Jason."

Closing his eyes, Jason answered, "Oh, right. I keep forgetting." They sat in silence a while. Then Jason spoke again. "Why are you so good to me?"

Piper kissed his forehead. "I love you. That's why."

Elise and Will walked in. "Good evening, Jason," Will greeted in his "doctor voice." "I've decided to put Elise here in charge while I'm gone. Every day she is going to inject this serum." Will held up a small vial full of a clear liquid. "It will slow down the poison. The only side-effect you should get is that you're going to feel quite tired most of the time."

Jason smiled. "Alright, sounds good."

"Great. Right now, we're going to leave you to get some rest."

Jason nodded.

"I'll be back before you know it," Piper promised the son of Jupiter. "See you soon." They all left the room. Piper got Elise's attention. "Hey, Elise, could I talk to you?" piper requested, pulling Elise aside. "You know Lacy, right?"

Elise smiled. "'Course I know Lacy."

"Well, listen. I'm afraid Drew has taken a liking to pushing her around, bullying her, et cetera. Could you kind of look out for her while I'm gone?"

Elise nodded. "Yeah, sure, no problem."

Suddenly, Hermes appeared in the middle of the room. "Chop-chop, happy campers! Time's a-wasting! C'mon, I'll teleport us outside of camp."

Elise hugged Will goodbye, and physician, thief, and queen left camp in a cloud of smoke. Piper's first quest since the Giant War had begun.


	9. Nico is at His Wit's End

**Longest chapter so far, yay!**

 **Nico's POV**

The next morning, Nico didn't wake up. You can't wake up if you haven't slept. Worry for Will had kept him up all night, tossing and turning. The son of Apollo was his best friend. Nico wouldn't be able to bear it if something happened to him. Yet, Will was prophesied to die. No, Nico didn't sleep a wink.

Nico forced himself to get out of bed, to wish Piper and Will good luck if not to start the day. Nico headed straight to Half-blood Hill, but the usual crowd of campers come to see the heroes off was missing. Nico didn't pay much attention to the fact. They were probably leaving that afternoon. In that case, Nico had time to say goodbye personally, rather than being a single wave in a crowd of well-wishers.

Nico walked to the Apollo cabin and knocked on the door. "I'll get it!" a voice from inside sang. Nico nearly cringed when he recognized the voice as that of—

"Elise," Nico greeted. He tried to work up a smile, but decided she wasn't worth the effort.

"Hey, Nico," she answered in her usual, cheery manner. Something about her was off. Nico decided it was the dark circles under her eyes. She looked like she didn't sleep well either.

"Are you feeling alright?" Nico inquired, though he didn't particularly care. "You've kind of got…" Nico gestured to the shadows under his own eyes, thinking she might get it.

"Oh, dark circles? Figured I might. Would you believe these guys? They get up at the crack of dawn!" Elise laughed, but Nico detected something in it that was less than genuine.

"I came to say goodbye to Will," Nico announced.

Elise's face fell. The shadows under her eyes seemed more in place. "You what?" she choked out.

Olympus, as much as Elise thought she Nico were friends, she couldn't expect that he would want to see her instead of Will, could she? "I came to see Will off," Nico repeated. "No offense, but I wasn't here to see how you settled in."

Elise twisted her little finger nervously. "I figured you wouldn't. I mean… I just expected that you would've known…"

The way Elise was acting made Nico anxious. What wasn't she telling him? "What would I have known?"

"It's just… Will already left," Elise announced sympathetically. Nico felt his stomach sink. Gone? Will couldn't have left. He knew he wasn't going to come back. Nico didn't even get to say goodbye. "If it makes you feel any better," Elise continued. Nico had the feeling she was not going to make him feel any better. "It was kind of a shock to everyone, how soon they left. But Hermes was pretty demanding about the whole—"

Nico interrupted, his eyes beginning to sting. "Hermes? What does Hermes have to do with any of this?"

"You didn't have dinner last night, did you?"

"Answer the question, Elise." Nico demanded. "Please," he added as an afterthought.

"Hermes is the thief of the prophecy," she stated.

Nico was getting a headache. He couldn't tell if it was from the sunlight, talking to Elise, hearing all this ground-shaking news, or a winning combination of all three. "This is bad."

Elise sighed. "Yes, I know it's bad. The whole camp knows it's bad. The gods, if they even know, know it's bad." He had never heard Elise admit anything was bad before. He doubted this pessimistic side of her would stay around for long. "Hey, I would love to talk longer, but I have to give Jason his shot. If you want to come, you can. I'm sure Jason would be happy to see you."

Nico wasn't thrilled at the idea of voluntarily spending more quality time with Elise, but he had wanted to check on Jason earlier. It might distract him from the thought of Will… well, dying. "Alright, fine," Nico agreed and began to follow Elise to the infirmary.

Elise blabbed the whole way about things that didn't matter. Nico wasn't listening. He was trying so hard to fight the thoughts that made him want to crawl back into bed and never come out again. Jason was dying, Will was dying. His two best friends were the victims of the Fates. Wasn't it enough that he had lost Bianca?

"Hey, man," Jason greeted Nico when he walked in. Elise immediately got busy filling a syringe. "Wasn't expecting to see you here."

Nico managed a brief smile. "Came to see how you were doing."

"Ah, well, y'know. I'm just getting started with treatments and stuff, but it's not too bad yet. What about you?"

Nico shrugged. "I'm fine." Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw Elise smile just a little bit.

"How's that shot coming, doc?" Jason asked Elise.

Elise laughed. "Please don't call me doc."

"Okay, Elise. How's it coming?"

"I haven't found the medication yet, but—oh! Here it is." Elise grabbed a small vial of clear liquid. "Oh, wait. No, this is adrenaline. That could've been bad." She picked up another vial that was close to it. "This is it." She filled up the syringe and injected it into Jason's arm. "That's it. Everything is done."

"Until tomorrow," Nico muttered.

"At which point, all we have to do is repeat the same simple process," Elise reminded him brightly. Her optimism was back and as annoying as ever. "Breakfast will be in about five minutes," she continued. "You should probably stay in bed, Jason, but I'll bring you something back."

"Thanks, Elise, but I'm not really that hungry," Jason yawned. "In fact, I'm a little too tired to eat anything."

Nico raised his eyebrows. "That serum works pretty fast."

Elise nodded. "So it does. We'll leave you alone now, Jason," she said, backing out of the room. Once they left the room, she turned to Nico. "I'm going to go get some food," she announced. "Do you want to come?"

Nico shoved his hands into his pockets. "No, thank you. I'm going for a walk."

Elise hesitated, twisting her little finger. "Will would probably want you to eat something."

That made Nico angry, but he did his best not to show it. "I'm fine, Elise. You can go by yourself." He left before she could say another word.

Nico couldn't believe Elise. She was so pretentious. Acting like she was a doctor, acting like she was Will, acting like she was somehow in charge of Nico. First off, it was a miracle she remembered to check the label on the vial. She could've injected Jason with adrenaline and killed him. She was not Will, nor would she ever be Will. She could never replace him. Furthermore, it was none of her business whether he decided he wanted breakfast or not. She really got on Nico's nerves like nobody else could.

What was even more infuriating was the fact that he had no one he could vent to. Everyone that knew Elise was either at camp and loved her, on a quest and loved her, or asleep and loved her. He was alone in his opinions. Annabeth and Percy were the only ones at camp who didn't really know her, or if they did, they hadn't known her long enough to form an opinion.

Nico subconsciously began to make his way to the Athena Cabin, in hopes that Annabeth would be there instead of the dining hall. They hadn't talked much before or during the Giant War, but afterwards they had hung out enough to gain a mutual respect. That was enough to build a friendship on. If there was any hope that he could talk to someone about it, he could talk to Annabeth.

When he reached the cabin, he knocked on the door and Malcolm answered. "Hi," Nico greeted. "Is Annabeth here?"

"Yes," Malcom replied shortly.

Nico waited for Malcom to say more. When he didn't, Nico continued. "May I see her, please?"

Malcom opened the door wider, gesturing for Nico to come in. "I guess so."

Nico—while unimpressed by the son of Athena's poor hospitality—walked into the Athena Cabin. He was surprised by how quiet it was. There were twelve campers, but they barely made a sound. Some were reading books, others were on their laptops, and others were talking quietly. It wasn't a bad sort of quiet. It was peaceful. He rather liked it.

Annabeth was sitting at a desk, hunched over blueprints. She looked up when Nico walked in. "Hey, Nico," she welcomed, standing up. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has been," Nico agreed. "I was going to go for a walk. I was wondering if you wanted to come."

Annabeth sighed in relief and started out the door. "Thank the gods. I was looking for an excuse to get out." Once they were outside, Annabeth explained. "I was going over my old blueprints. They're only theoretical, but they have a few mistakes. I'm going to fix them and make them ten times better."

"What do you think you'll do with them, once you've finished?" Nico asked, carrying on the conversation.

"I'll bring them back to New Rome and see if I can pull together enough supplies to get started on one of the smaller ones as an extracurricular project for more credit."

"By yourself?" Nico question, incredulously.

Annabeth laughed. "No. I'll get some friends to help. I'll pay them if it comes to that."

"Do you have a lot of friends in New Rome?"

Frowning, Annabeth answered. "Not many. But I don't need that many. I'm good with Hazel, Frank, and Reyna. Percy would help too, of course, when he's not busy. What about you? You probably have a lot of friends by now."

Nico shrugged. "Not many here. I'm good with Will and Jason, though. There is this really annoying girl that won't leave me alone."

Annabeth grinned in amusement. "Oh, really? Who?"

"I don't know if you've met Elise Mosely, daughter of Apollo?"

She seemed surprised. "I have. Is she really that bad? She seemed nice enough to me."

Again, Elise had brought another totally innocent person into her little trap. "She does seem nice enough," Nico explained. "But she's too nice. If you hang around her long enough, you get sick like you swallowed a cup of sugar. She's pretty conceited, too. And she laughs too much. She has this really irritating habit of twisting her little finger. She forgets everything. I haven't even begun on what happened just this morning."

Annabeth smirked. "What happened?"

"I went to the Apollo Cabin this morning to say goodbye to Will. Elise answered the door, full of her regular sunshine and smiles," Nico said this with as much sarcasm as he could muster. "Only to tell me that Will already left on the quest he's going to—" Nico paused, wondering if he should tell Annabeth about Will's inevitable death. If he couldn't trust her, there were few people he could trust. "That he's going to die on."

Annabeth froze in her tracks and quickly turned to look at Nico. "What do you mean 'that he's going to die on?''

Nico felt his eyes sting again. "The prophecy said he was going to die. It was pretty blunt."

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "Just because it seems like there's no hope for Will," she began slowly. "It doesn't mean there's not any. Think. Will's probably lost all hope for himself. He probably thinks he's going to die. That means that if we give up hope for him on this end of things, all hope is gone. Prophecies are woven the way they are to deceive, to mystify. It could mean something entirely different."

Nico wished he could buy into everything Annabeth was saying. Unfortunately, he had heard the prophecy. He was glad that Annabeth still had a little hope for Will, and he prayed that she was right, but he couldn't convince himself.

"And as for Elise," Annabeth continued. "Maybe she's everything you said: annoying, conceited, etc. I wouldn't know. But from what I do know of her, she's strong. For all she knows, she's losing her brother. She could be hurting and putting on a brave face. Cut her a little slack."

Nico sighed, knowing Annabeth was probably right, but not wanting to admit to Elise being anything more than a giggly psychopath. "That doesn't sound like you at all."

Annabeth nodded. "I know. I had to think really hard about what Piper would say."

Nico laughed, which was unusual for him.

Annabeth smiled. "I was going to go get some breakfast," she announced. "Why don't you come with me?"

Nico nodded and walked to the dining hall with Annabeth.


	10. Will Strangles a Lizard

"Okay, guys," Hermes chimed. "Just two thousand steps to the nearest restaurant! Who remembers how far two thousand steps is? Piper?"

Piper glared at Hermes. "One mile."

Hermes beamed. "Why, Piper! That's correct. I see you've been listening. Buck up, Will. You look dead."

Will scowled. "You didn't let us sleep." He wanted to say so much more. Such as, _You've been talking non-stop about different methods of travel for hours,_ or _You made us a follow a turtle into a swamp because you thought the color was nice_ , or possibly _If I had to choose between having trigeminal neuralgia or going on another quest with you, I would choose the trigeminal neuralgia._ But bringing up the fact that neither of them had slept since leaving camp seemed to be the most practical thing.

"Who needs sleep?" Hermes demanded.

"Mortals!" Piper exclaimed. "Mortals need sleep!"

Hermes frowned rather pointedly. "But Piper, you're only half mortal." 

Piper hid her face in her hands. "I'm losing my sanity. Explain to me again why you can't just teleport us to the antidote?"

Rolling his eyes, Hermes responded. "That's interfering with your quest a bit more than I'd like to."

The voice of reason was clearly not going to work on Hermes. Will had decided to keep his mouth shut for the majority of the quest. He only spoke when he couldn't help himself. His back ached underneath his backpack and his feet where throbbing with pain. Speaking up against a hopeless cause would take more energy than it was worth.

"Let's just get something to eat," Will grumbled.

"That's the spirit, William! Well, in a sense. A little enthusiasm wouldn't hurt you," Hermes encouraged.

One mile later, Hermes was still talking. However, there was a restaurant—"Syzzlin' Sybbie's'"—in which the thief god might hopefully occupy his mouth with food for a little while.

The trio walked into the diner expecting to slump down into a booth and order. Instead, they stood in the doorway, baffled by what they saw.

There is no shortage of 50's diners in the world, but hardly any of them are still stuck in the 50's. Everybody, even the customers, wore era-accurate clothing. Overhearing just a few sentences was enough to pick up the phrase "Daddy-O" more than three times. The jukebox in the corner spewed out Elvis Presley songs. All of the servers wore roller-skates and chewed gum.

"This place looks great!" Hermes exclaimed.

"Yeah, sure… great…" Will absently agreed. "Let's just sit down and… um, order, I guess."

The only table open was one towards the back of the restaurant. They all sat down, and waited until a waitress skated up to them and gave them menus.

"What kind of menu is this?" Piper whispered to Will. "It's literally all meat."

"Are you sure?" Will questioned. "Maybe there's a vegetarian menu that you have to ask for."

Hermes, completely oblivious to the conversation, decided to make his own comments on the menu. "The shepherd's pie sounds great! I'm trying to decide between that or the lamb chops."

"Hey, you guys ready to order, or what?" their waitress demanded.

"Do you have a vegetarian menu I could look at," Piper inquired sheepishly.

"Sorry, sweetie," the waitress said as she smacked her gum loudly. "What you read on that menu is what there is to eat."

Hermes, still studying the menu intently, asked, "What is your shepherd's pie like? Is it better than the lamb chops?"

The waitress eyed him carefully. "For you," she began. "I'd go with the lamb chops."

Hermes closed his menu and handed it to her. "Great! I'll take that."

"Me, too," Will announced. "With a side of salad, please."

"Salad?" the waitress repeated incredulously. When Will nodded she sighed. "Salad it is. I'll see what I can do." And with that she walked off.

Soon enough, the waitress came back with two plates piled with meat of an undistinguishable shape. It smelled gross, looked gross, and as soon as Hermes took a bite, Will knew it tasted gross.

"I don't remember mortal food tasting this bad!" he exclaimed. "How do you stand it?"

Will looked down at his own plate. There was a bowl full of grass, undoubtedly meant to be the salad. "Here, this was supposed to be for you, Piper," Will announced. "I don't think you'll want it though." He continued to stare at his own plate, trying to think how he could work up the courage to devour even a bit of it.

Hermes continued to complain. "Would you just look at this barbecue! It's ridiculous! Far too red and metallic-tasting."

Will took notice of the barbecue. He had been around the infirmary enough to know something about it. "Um, Hermes, sir? That's not barbecue."

Piper's eyes widened. "You mean…?"

Will nodded in disgust. "Yeah, it's blood."

Piper covered her mouth with her hand. It looked as though she was fighting the feeling to throw up. Truth be told, it made Will a little queasy, himself. He looked around at the servers and customers. He got the feeling that there wasn't a human among them.

"Well, this is absolutely unacceptable! I'm going to have a word with the chef!" Hermes declared at the top of his lungs.

"No, no, no!" Will whispered, but it was too late. The thief god had already stormed through the door to the kitchen. Will and Piper jumped up after him.

Inside the kitchen was one of the most horrific things Will had ever seen. Meat—Olympus knew what kinds—hung everywhere, surrounded by flies. In the midst of it all was a huge woman with reptilian skin and a tail. She wore an old, faded Camp Half-blood T-shirt and held a cleaver over a chopped liver. It was then that Piper lost her dinner.

"May I help you?" she hissed in a voice that sounded like she had rocks stuffed in her mouth.

Hermes began to back out slowly. "Oh, we're terribly sorry. We were just wondering if there was anything for dessert."

The creature made a sound like she was choking. Will realized it was the sound of her laughter. "Of course, there's dessert." She held up her cleaver. "It's you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Piper draw her sword. Will hadn't thought to bring a weapon, which was stupid and borderline crazy.

Hermes tried to reason with her. "Come now, you have plenty of food around here. What could you gain by killing two harmless demigods?"

"Hmph," the monster began. "It was two harmless demigods that cost me my first life."

Hermes stopped short and furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, you are?"

She growled. "I'm Sybaris! The she-dragon and demon of Phocis! No one ever remembers me!"

"No! Of course I remember you!" Hermes insisted. "You were killed by…?"

"Eurybaros. He was supposed to be a sacrifice for me. He took the place of Alkyoneus. Now, _he_ would've made a tasty meal. A bit stringy, maybe, but cooked medium rare…?" The dragon licked her lips contemplatively. "But today I'm stuck with these two. Now step aside, Hermes," Sybaris hissed, unsheathing her claws like Wolverine. "This is not your fight."

Hermes shrugged. "True enough. Sorry, kids," he sighed, and plopped down into the booth.

Sybaris wasted no time attacking. She lunged at Piper who just barely dodged the dragon's claws. Will watched as Sybaris' tail whipped around and slashed Piper across the face. The daughter of Aphrodite cried out in pain and lopped off the dragon's tail.

Sybaris reared back with a deafening screech. "Children!" she exclaimed. "My children! Help me!" All around, the customers and servers slowly morphed into creatures as horrifying as their mother. Some spit fire. Others had wings, perfect for swooping in and taking off Will's head. They all attacked Piper. Not a single one went after Will.

He felt so useless. Piper was doing alright, turning dragons into dust left and right, but Will could tell it was beginning to be too much for her. They just kept coming. "There's too many of them!" Piper called. "I can't take them all!"

Hermes, who was casually watching the fight from the booth, spoke up. "Wouldn't it be a shame," he exclaimed, "if somebody were to kill the mother, thus leaving her children without a purpose!"

"Shut up!" Sybaris spat.

Then an idea dawned on Will. It was risky, stupid, and would more than likely get him killed. Then again, he was going to die anyway. He might as well go for it.

He jumped up behind Sybaris a hung onto her neck, strangling her. The dragon stumbled backwards into the kitchen. Her claws pierced Will's arms several times in an attempt to get him off of her back. Will wouldn't let go. Instead he reached out with one hand and grabbed one of the kitchen knives on the counter. With it, he stabbed Sybaris's neck several times. It spurted blood which soaked the knife before the she-dragon and demon of Phocis dissolved into dust.

Piper rushed in the kitchen, covered in monster ash. "Oh, you're alive! Thank the gods!"

"Are they all dead out there?" Will inquired, his exasperation showing through his voice.

"Back in Tartarus. That was brave, what you did."

Will waved aside her words weakly. "It was stupid and it worked. That's all. Look at you, you're all beat up, and tired I'll bet."

Hermes poked his head through the door. "Is anybody dead in here? Only the dragon? Good. Will! I see you've got a new weapon. Is that dragon's blood?"

Will glanced down at the weapon in his hand. The thick substance was still running down the blade. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Fantastic! That knife is enchanted now. It will cut through almost any substance. Let's get this show on the road, campers!"

Will glanced at Piper. She was more exhausted than he was. They couldn't go on any longer without rest. "We need to rest, now," Will demanded. "We can't take this much longer."

Hermes sighed. "How did I know you were going to say that? Here," he said, pulling out two sleeping bags from his backpack. "Use these, and eat something." He pulled out two sandwiches, as well.

Will and Piper glanced at each other, and Will knew they were thinking the same thing. Hermes had food all along. They never needed to go into the restaurant. For reasons unknown to them, Hermes had made them fight the dragon.


	11. Elise Meets Everybody's Mother

Elise drummed her fingers next to her on the bench. This skills assessment was getting really boring really fast. So, her cabin mates wanted to figure out what talents she had inherited from Apollo. That was fine. Did it really have to take up her entire day?

Her archery skills were atrocious (which meant another thing she couldn't fight with.) Her singing voice was mediocre at best. She had discovered that her talent with poetry was limited. All she had been able to come up with was this:

 _Roses are red_

 _Violets are blue_

 _Is this good enough?_

 _I have other things to do._

They all assured her that it was normal for demigods to only pick up one skill from their parents. Will was a medicine nerd; Kayla and Austin were archers. They called it a matter of balance. If everyone in the cabin was the most powerful Apollo kid to ever live, the whole camp would implode under their awesomeness.

Then they sort of stopped talking when they decided that would actually be really cool.

Now Elise was in the amphitheater, trying to memorize and preform just one of Shakespeare's sonnets. It was a difficult task. She was beginning to wonder if Shakespeare was sitting next to her, he would cringe at his own work. She did that a lot. Whether she was drawing or hearing her own voice recorded… And she was distracted again.

"Alright, Elise," the stand-in head-counselor, a camper called Bert, called from the stage. "Take it from the top."

Elise sighed and began. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? For thou…" She searched her mind for the next line. "For thou… For thou art stupid and got nothing. Way to go."

Bert sighed and ran his hand over his face. His patience with Elise's poor memorization skills was clearly wearing thin. "Don't sweat it, Elise. I guess preforming just isn't your thing. It's alright, though. I think we know that your skills lie in the infirmary."

"Yeah," Elise agreed, twisting her little finger nervously. "Speaking of which, I'm due there about now. I had better get going."

Bert excused her and she headed off in the direction of her patient. While she was walking, Percy came to join her with a friendly, "Hey, Elise. What's up?"

The pair of them had become good friends over the course of two days. That incredible feat was one of the few talents Elise had. Elise smiled. "Oh, nothing much. I just got out of a 'skills assessment.' That basically means that in one day I figure out everything I can't do. I was just heading over to give Jason his shot."

Percy nodded. "Nice, I'll come with you."

They reached the infirmary to find Jason, up and about. He stared at them like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Jason, what are you doing up?" Elise questioned calmly.

"Oh… well… um… I was just going to get a drink of water," Jason replied sheepishly and clearly untruthfully.

"Why don't you go lie back down and I'll get you your drink of water," Elise replied.

Jason cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up on his face. "Well, actually, Elise," he began. "I was really hoping I maybe might be able to take a walk or something."

It was a little bit unlike him. He obviously hadn't entirely coped with the idea of taking orders from Elise. If Will was here, maybe Jason would be more apt to listen to "doctor's orders." She knew it must be difficult to for him to have to listen to someone younger and less experienced than himself.

Elise couldn't think about that now. "I don't think that's a good idea…" she mumbled. Except she couldn't exactly let him stay in bed the whole time, could she? Exercise was good for him, wasn't it? She wished Will was there to tell her what to do. She was in charge now, and she had to make a decision. "Alright, Jason, go ahead. But don't go too far and come back soon. Don't over-work yourself."

Jason laughed. "Don't worry, Mom, I won't. Coming, Percy?"

"Nah, I'm good, bro," Percy said, shrugging.

"Suit yourself," Jason sang, walking out the door.

Elise silently walked into the back of the infirmary to get Jason's shot ready. She really wished Jason wouldn't have brought up moms. She knew he didn't do it on purpose, but the subject of mothers was a sensitive one.

"Hey, are you okay?" Percy called from the doorway.

Elise glanced up at Percy. He seemed genuinely concerned, which was not a good thing. She hated when people worried about her. "I'm fine," she said, smiling. "You didn't have to stay here. You could've gone with Jason."

"It's alright. I wanted to stay here. Are you alright?"

Elise sighed. "Really, I'm fine."

"I can tell that you're not," Percy announced. "It's alright. You can tell me."

Elise twisted her little finger nervously. "I haven't ever told anyone about this," she warned.

Percy sat on one of the infirmary beds and gestured for Elise to continue. Taking a deep breath, Elise began. "I was thinking about my mom," she explained. "My mom met my dad when she was a senior in high school. My grandparents told me that she's impulsive type. Anyway, I was born before she graduated. My dad, well, he was nowhere. My grandparents never even met him.

"Mom… people knew she was unstable from the moment I was born. She didn't want me. She didn't want to even look at me. She screamed at the doctors and nurses. She was violent. They say she was upset about my dad not being around. Well, then she started going off about Greek gods, and they decided that she had cracked. They put her in an asylum and left me to my grandparents.

I love them a lot, but they're getting up there in age. It was getting hard for them to take care of me. They got a note that said that I would be safe here, free of charge. So, here I am. Chances are I'm going to stay here as long as I can. But it's not a bad place to spend the rest of my teenage years, is it?"

Percy cleared his throat. "Um, no. No, it's not."

"Please don't tell anyone. Especially not Nico. I don't know why I said that, but yeah, especially not him. Or Jason, that would be bad. Or—"

"I won't tell anyone," Percy promised. "But, you've never really had a mom."

"She's still alive…" Elise pointed out, furrowing her eyebrows.

"But you've never really known what having a mom is like," Percy insisted.

"No, I guess not," Elise confirmed, shrugging.

Percy was silent for a little bit. Then, out of the blue, he announced, "You need to meet my mom."

Elise looked at Percy like he had suddenly become a fish. Wouldn't it be strange if he could actually turn into a fish? "What?"

"Annabeth and I are going to my house this afternoon to visit my mom," Percy explained. "You should come with us."

"Oh, I couldn't. I would hate to arrive unannounced," Elise said.

"Don't worry about that. She doesn't even know _we're_ coming. She loves everybody. You've got to come."

Elise considered his proposition a bit. "If you insist…"

Percy's house was a tidy apartment in Manhattan. Just standing outside the door, Elise could smell the welcoming aroma of cookies and hear the clicking of keys on a laptop. She was doing her best to understand the character of Percy's mother from what she was experiencing and what both Percy and Annabeth had said of her. They made her out to be a loving woman, which was good. It would be awful if Elise's first experience outside of camp in a year was meeting a terrible person. However, Elise was still a bit nervous about invading her home.

"Well, here we are," Percy sang. He burst in the door without even knocking. Of course, it was his house. Why would he need to knock? "Mom?"

Percy's mother, a kind-looking woman with dark hair, looked up from her laptop and shot out of her chair. "Holy Poseidon… Percy? Annabeth? What are you two doing here?" She wrapped her son in a tight hug that probably would have suffocated a normal human being, and did the same for Annabeth.

"We were given a little vacation," Percy explained with a crooked smile. "We just got in a few days ago."

Miss Jackson shot Percy a nasty look. "You mean you've been in New York for a few days and you haven't bothered to visit?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Erm…" was all he could manage to say.

Miss Jackson's wrath soon vanished and her attention turned to Elise. "Who's this?" she asked with a happy tone in her voice.

"This is our friend Elise Mosely," Annabeth introduced. "She's the daughter of Apollo." Annabeth didn't seem to understand why Percy wanted to bring Elise along to visit. As much as she hated keeping the daughter of Athena in the dark, she was grateful that Percy hadn't told her anything.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Jackson," Elise greeted with a friendly smile.

"Oh, please don't call me 'Miss Jackson.' Last names can be so confusing. Call me Sally," Sally instructed her.

"Alright, Sally," Elise said with a brief laugh.

"Why don't you help yourself to a cookie, or a few cookies? They're fresh. I got the feeling that I should make them, and I didn't know why. Now, I get it. The bottomless pit has arrived."

"You're so funny, Mom," Percy said, clearly not finding her very funny.

First: Sally Jackson's cookies were like nothing the world has ever produced. They topped nectar, ambrosia, or any other edible thing that the gods have ordained. Second: They were blue. Elise did not understand why they were blue but she wasn't complaining. It told her that Sally was a fun-loving person. Third: It was really easy to eavesdrop on Jackson/Chase conversations. She listened in from the kitchen.

"Percy, something is really driving me crazy," Sally whispered rather loudly. "Have I met Elise somewhere?"

"No, but don't worry. I've thought the same thing several times," Percy assured her.

"I have to admit that I have thought she looks sort of familiar," Annabeth agreed.

"It's just, I can't put my finger on it," Sally continued. "I know I've seen her somewhere. Does she live up here?"

"She comes from Florida," Percy informed. Elise had no idea that her face could be the cause of such a commotion. She had always figured her face was just your average, ordinary face. It was kind of weird to think she had a special, drive-you-crazy face. She almost laughed at the idea of it.

"I like her hair," Sally suddenly announced. Elise could almost feel the confused expressions on Percy and Annabeth's faces. "It's nice and curly. It adds personality to her. It's the kind of hair I would write about."

Elise smiled to herself. She had never really liked her hair. If having a mom meant someone liked the things you hated about yourself, she liked the idea of having a mom.

While Elise was at the house, she met Percy's stepfather who insisted she call him Paul instead of Mr. Blofis. After dinner, they all played several games of Uno. (Annabeth won more than half of them. Elise was pretty sure she had purposely lost the others.) The three demigods left well after dinner with plenty of promises that they would return soon.

Elise liked Percy's family a lot. They had done so much to make her feel a part of the family. If Elise was one for tears, she probably would've cried. She had never felt so completely welcome.

Annabeth retired to her cabin early, leaving Percy and Elise standing just inside the ring of cabins.

"Percy, thank you for making me go with you," Elise said. "And tell your parents that I said thank you again for having me. I really enjoyed myself."

"I'm glad you did, Elise," Percy replied. "My mom told me to tell you that you're welcome back any time. I can tell that she really liked you."

Elise thanked Percy once more and headed off to her cabin. She had a warm feeling all over. She liked having in a way known what it was like to be a part of a complete family. That night, she slept better than she had since arriving at camp.


End file.
